June 28, 2018

With overcast skies today and a threat of rain, I was going to devote the day to doing things around the house, but in early afternoon I couldn’t keep from taking a little outing. It was a nice surprise that when I visited this small mountain lake up in the Cabinet Mountains there was a short break in the clouds, just long enough to take a few pictures.

Corona Lake in the Cabinet Mountains of western Montana

June 23, 2018

While contemplating a hike next week I was looking over some photos taken there a number of years ago and noticed this one taken on October 9, 2013 that I had never published. A storm was just sweeping in from the south but a window remained looking out over the clouds that filled the valley toward the west.

February 10, 2018

In contrast to two days ago on a sunny ridge where the buttercups were in bloom and a temperature of 50º, this morning’s landscape looks quite different with a temperature of 11º (F) and a blanket of new snow.

Ice crystals formed in the track of a wolf.

December 10, 2017

High pressure has been in place over western Montana for what has seemed like an eternity, trapping low stratus clouds and freezing fog over the Clark Fork River. Viewed from the valley, the clouds dim the light and obscure the mountain tops (and sometimes the mountains themselves) that surround it. Sometimes however, that can bring an opportunity for seeing some very pretty scenery if you can get above the clouds. On a hunch today I took a forest road for fifteen miles to the Corona Divide about three thousand feet above the valley and it turned out to be just above the low dense clouds. The following are some of the ninety photos I brought back from the Divide today.